American Idealist

Peace Corps, VISTA, Community Action, Head Start, Legal Services for the Poor, Youth Corps, Job Corps, and more. Sargent Shriver invented a string of social initiatives that shaped an era and dared millions of young Americans to live out their ideals. Those who knew him—Bill Moyers, Andrew Young, political commentator Mark Shields, and so many others—have spoken of Shriver in the same breath as Martin Luther King, Jr., calling him a visionary of deep humanity who helped create a more just society.

American Idealist brings Shriver's story to life in this documentary which aired nationally on PBS on January 21, 2008. A powerful 90-minute depiction of practical activism, it offers a hopeful vision of what this nation could be and could do, based on the experience of what it once did when pushed by the civil rights movement and guided by the War on Poverty.

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About the Producer

Bruce Orenstein is the writer, director and producer of American Idealist: The Story of Sargent Shriver. In 1990 he founded the Chicago Video Project (CVP), a 501C-3 non-profit video production company. CVP produces documentaries and public policy videos about social and economic issues for and public television and non-profit public interest organizations. Prior to his career as a filmmaker, Mr. Orenstein directed community run direct-action citizen’s organizations in Seattle Washington, Fort Wayne Indiana, and Chicago Illinois.

SARGE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SARGENT SHRIVER

BY SCOTT STOSSEL

Scott Stossel’s exhaustively researched, authorized biography depicts Shriver’s connection to the historical events of the last century—the Great Depression, World War II, JFK’s assassination, the Cold War, and many more. Sarge gives us a complete account of Shriver’s life, as well as thoughtful commentary on the Kennedy family, the Peace Corps, and United States and world history.